Benin City, Anna Von Hausswolff and The Duckworth Lewis Method: New albums out this week

Benin City, Anna Von Hausswolff and The Duckworth Lewis Method bring something different to the table with their new albums.

Benin City: Fires In The Park (Audio Doughnuts)

Beyond their name (inspired by a West African capital), versatile trio Benin City make music that feels rooted in British urban life. They’ve already proved their knack for melding simple hooks and imaginative fusions on tracks such as Faithless sit on this album alongside a blend of mellow rare groove, electro, indie, dub and jazzy reprises.

The scattershot range – from the modern paean of This Is London Part 2 to the funky climax of So You Say – doesn’t make for an entirely focused collection but it’s both ambitious and easy to warm to.

Anna Von Hausswolff’s new album, Ceremony (Picture: supplied)

Anna Von Hausswolff: Ceremony (City Slang)

Mythical-sounding singer/musician Anna Von Hausswolff is an established success in her native Sweden, where her debut album Singing From The Grave (2010) went top five. Her follow-up, Ceremony, deserves a wider audience for her indie-gothic symphonies, though it isn’t exactly a mainstream crossover.

Von Hausswolff bides her time with doomy instrumentals (partly played on a cathedral organ) before her beautifully lucid vocals break through. The morbid themes and portentous rhythms won’t be to everyone’s taste but she has an adventurous flair that ensures these songs never feel bloated; Von Hausswolff doesn’t merely flirt with spooky imagery, she tears away with it.

Her melodies flow from proggy overtones (Epitaph Of Daniel) to folky strands (Liturgy Of Light), while Ocean swells into an expansive chorus with gospel elements. Overall, it casts a murky, intoxicating spell.

A second cricket-themed LP by the Divine Comedy’s Neil Hannon and fellow Irishman Thomas Walsh, with a dozen vaudevillian tracks about the idiosyncrasies of the gentleman’s game. Walsh also fronts an outfit called Pugwash, who make 1970s-styled guilty pleasures in the style of 10cc or ELO, and this aesthetic dominates much of the album (particularly The Third Man and Umpire).

Elsewhere, plummy Test Match Special commentators and assorted cricket fans provide the voices for It’s Just Not Cricket and Nudging & Nurdling, while Stephen Fry narrates Judd’s Paradox (named after the Marxist Etonian in Another Country who remarks: ‘What I hate about cricket is that it’s such a damn good game’). All charming stuff but only Boom Boom Afridi, a tribute to the big-hitting Pakistani all-rounder, reminds you that cricket is the second-biggest sport on Earth, not just some English eccentricity.